In yet another example of the dangers that foreign visitors face when arriving in the U.S. in the post 9/11 era, a 35-year-old Italian lawyer, coming to the U.S. to visit his American girlfriend in Virginia, was refused entry to the country and detained for 10 days for what proved to be no reason.
Domenico Salerno arrived at Dulles Airport on April 29 expecting to travel within the U.S. with Caitlin Cooper, whom he had met two years previously and had visited in the U.S. frequently.
Reportedly, a border official understood Salerno to be seeking asylum, and he was detained pending a determination on that point.
"Unfortunately," said Claudia Flower, an attorney retained by the Cooper family, "people don't realize there is something called administrative detention, which is a misnomer because the person is confined in jail with criminals" without being charged.
She said U.S. Customs and Border Protection is authorized to detain arriving foreigners "if the inspector is not satisfied with the intent" of the travelers. In this case, Flower said, there was "at best, a misunderstanding, perhaps because Mr. Salerno doesn't speak English, or at worst, .... it is not clear."
It took more than a week, the intercession of lawyers and even intervention by a U.S. senator to determine that Salerno was not seeking asylum. He returned to Italy immediately, with his girlfriend.
Flower, a former lawyer with the Department of Homeland Security, said such cases take a long time because three DHS agencies are involved, they are underfunded and detention takes priority over asking questions.
Customs and Border Protection stops the individual. But for detention, jurisdiction is passed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. However, Flower said, if an individual has expressed a fear of returning home, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services makes the determination on asylum questions.
The third agency, she said, is supposed to conduct an interview with the presumed asylum-seeker, but with the underfunding, "what should happen immediately doesn't happen immediately."
As a result, she said, it took "too long" to resolve Salerno's case.
To contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Nadine Godwin at [email protected].